


Escape

by fullmoon02



Category: 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-27
Updated: 2013-07-27
Packaged: 2017-12-21 12:37:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/900398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullmoon02/pseuds/fullmoon02
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When waiting for the train with Ben, Dan starts to question his choices. This story is a slight AU where Dan does not have a family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Escape

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tealightwhimsy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tealightwhimsy/gifts).



> I would like to thank my beta, TS, for all the help, encouragement and great ideas.

"You ever read the Bible, Dan? I read it one time... I was eight years old. My daddy had just got himself killed over a shot of whiskey. My mother said we were going back east to start over. She gave me a Bible and sat me down at the train station. Told me to read while she went to buy our tickets. Well, I did as she said, read that Bible from cover to cover. Took me three days. She never came back."

Lonely. Just this morning the last thing Dan would have called Ben Wade, this cold-blooded criminal, was “lonely”. But now that word seemed to fit better than all the others. The longer Dan had been observing Ben, the more difficult it had become to understand him. There was a certain complexity in him: Wade was a criminal who could (and would) murder someone with their bare hands, simply because they were annoying. Dan had never seen remorse in his eyes, not even when he talked about taking someone’s life. This morning, if someone had asked, Dan would have said the only right place for Ben to stay was in a prison cell. But now, he wasn’t so sure. He had seen the other side of Ben when hearing him talking so smoothly, smiling with his eyes, being so kind.

The train would take Ben back to prison, right where he belonged. In Dan’s opinion it was all in vain, since Ben would only run away again, making a fool out of everybody. Ben was in handcuffs but they didn’t seem to mind him. Dan guessed he was probably too used to them to be bothered. He was able to move his hands enough to sketch his little notebook and it obviously seemed to be enough for him. For now, at least. Dan wondered what Dan was sketching. Perhaps it was the train station where his mother had left him so many years ago.

Instead, Dan listened to him talking about his dead father and his mother who had abandoned him. It made him think about Ben’s life choices.

“And then you joined the criminals and decided to fight the law?” Dan asked. 

He didn’t realise he said it out loud before he saw Ben looking at him. Ben smiled. There was something wicked in his smile, at least in Dan’s opinion. Maybe it only seemed wicked because it was practically impossible to see behind that smile. 

“Something like that,” Ben said, shrugging.

“Does it ever bother you, how much evil you’ve done?”

“No.”

“Didn’t think so.”

“But do you really care, Dan?”

“What do you mean?”

Ben didn’t say anything. Dan stayed quiet for a long time too. He kept looking out of the window. It was almost 3 o’clock.

“I think you didn’t get the life you wanted to have. I think you would rather be like me and see the world,” Ben said with a slightly teasing tone.

Dan snorted a laugh. It sounded fake even in his own ears.

“Well, correct me if I’m wrong,” Ben challenged him, looking straight into his eyes.

Dan had many things in his mind he would like to say to Ben. He wanted to tell him he was a criminal, a scumbag without a right to even breathe the same air with him, but didn’t — because he wouldn’t have meant it.

“Have you ever thought about having a family? You know, settling down?” Dan asks. He doesn’t wait for Ben’s answer before continuing. “I did. I planned on having a family for a long time. Then I went to the war, got shot and became a cripple. There ain’t much of a use for the men like me these days. Not as a worker, anyway. Apparently not as a husband, either.”

“So why did you stay here, then? It’s not like you were forced to.”

“After the war I had nowhere else to go, I guess.”

“Come with me then.”

The train was coming closer by any minute. The clock kept ticking but Dan couldn’t decide if he wanted it to move faster or slow down.

Dan looked around himself. The bridal suite they were in looked quite comfortable. This was the room where people came with their heads full of promises of a wonderful future, high hopes and expectations. It felt kind of wrong for Dan to stay here now when he was about to walk Wade to the train taking him back to prison. Dan knew he wouldn’t stay in prison for long — unless they sentenced him to death. Getting killed would be Ben’s ultimate fate, that Dan was sure of. But it didn’t mean he wanted to assist in that. In fact, he didn’t know himself what he wanted to do anymore.

Dan had started to care about this man. The way Ben talked to him, looked at him, smiled at him, it all felt like he cared. One evening, when it was already dark, they had been looking for a place to stay for night when Dan’s horse was scared by a snake, throwing him to the ground. He had hit his head, panicked, and started to pull out his gun. Then there was a hand on his shoulder and helping him to his feet, easing the gun from his hand. It was Wade. To his surprise, instead of pointing the gun at him, he handed it back, handle first. Dan knew that had Wade wanted to kill him, he would have. But obviously he liked Dan better alive.

They’d have to leave soon.

A long silence was broken by Ben who asked: “Do you worry about being shot if we go outside?”

“No.”

“Okay.”

“I’m not scared.”

“Okay.”

“I’m just trying to remember if the price of your head was for dead or alive.”

Ben huffed a laugh, then asked again: “Leave with me?”

When Dan didn’t answer right away, Ben jumped up from his seat.

“It’s three o’clock,” he said, nodding towards the window. “We need to get going.”

Ben hesitated, thought about his options. He could stay here and let Ben go, which was something he wanted to do. He could also walk him to the train, which was expected from him to do. The third option was to run away with Ben, take the risk of getting shot and become his partner in crime.

If money was the only thing Dan was interested in getting out of this, the decision would have been plain and simple. Dan needed money and the government would only give it to him if Wade actually made it to the train. But there was more than that. He didn’t owe the government nothing. He had been in a war, got injured and then been left all alone afterwards. Dan felt no one cared if he was dead or alive. He assumed Wade felt the same way, knew how it was to be betrayed by people he had trusted. 

The idea of walking out of his life was intimidating but tempting as well. Dan could finally become the man he always wanted to be: strong, brave, independent and tough. He could start all over but he had to choose now.

“What use would you have for a guy like me?” Dan asked. 

Ben had stepped outside the window. He turned to look at him. “I don’t know,” he said. “Keep me company? I have grown to like you, Dan.”

Dan knew he had to make his decision right there, right then. His father had never been much of talking type, but now his words echoed in his head: when choosing between two evils, pick the one you haven’t tried before. The life with Ben Wade, the murderer who had always been so kind and protective towards him, was his choice.

He climbed out of the window and followed Ben to the roof. The train whistled and a large car door was opened. Gunshots came from all directions, covering all the other sounds.  


Dan started running.


End file.
